INTERVIEW-IMF likely to lift S.Korea GDP forecasts

Published: 29 Oct 2009 20:18:14 PST

SEOUL, Oct 30 - The International Monetary Fund will likely upgrade its forecasts for South Korean economic growth for this year and next year, a senior IMF official told Reuters on Friday.

"It's true that the Q3 number was stronger than expected...This makes it more likely that we would revise in a positive way our predictions for this year and next year," Anoop Singh, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, said in an interview in Seoul.

The IMF's current forecast is for South Korea's gross domestic product to shrink by 1.0 percent this year before expanding by 3.6 percent next year.